The Ascent into Darkness
by Jadeor
Summary: The plane of Inninstrad is in turmoil, as powers of darkness each tries to claim it for their own. A planeswalker is exactly what they need to tip the balance, and ascend. The question is: will Jalaradi save Inninstrad, or ascend into darkness?


**To Hunt Vampires, and Other Monsters**

**Prologue**

The planeswalker appeared in a flash of pure fire, burning all the grass around him and hiding him in smoke. The only onlooker, a ghoul of a human long dead, stared on with its one good, the other having been eaten by a worm. The ghoul was so startled that it made a low groan, the only noise it could still produce with its few vocal chords. A human stepped out of the smoke, a short human that wore leather clothes, some sort of metal armour plating on its shoulders and a red monocle… thing.

The ghoul's primary purpose of creation had been destruction, and so it raised it hammer with an unearthly groan and plodded towards its prey.

The human chuckled and raised his hand, lightning jumped between his outstretched fingers, and with a resounding bang and a flash of light the ghoul was fried to an empty husk.

"Nice place." Muttered Jalaradi, the planeswalker, as he walked around the burn husk of his welcoming party. The whole place stank of corpses and Jalarai couldn't help but feel slightly sick as he realised that it wasn't just his assailant that made that stink.

A thick fog hung over the land, and it was getting thicker by the minute, soon it was so thick that Jalaradi couldn't see the land beneath his feet and it felt like it was clinging to his clothes, pulling him down. The mist seemed to swirl around him, and several times he thought he saw a figure in the mist, but it always disappeared before he could reach it, and once he could of sworn he could hear something walking, its footsteps muffled by the fog. After an hour of walking he began to shiver and cast a quick spell to keep himself warm, just that simple spell took a lot more mana then it usually did, the fog was affecting his mana bonds.

When he had finished he looked around, and what he saw made him jump, a group of figures stood in front of him, shoulder to shoulder, just within visual range. Jalaradi raised his hands slowly, lightning already crackling at his fingertips.

As if of one mind the figures surged at him as if of one mind, raising an assortment of weapons and tools and letting out a terrible cry, as they ran more figures came into view behind them, also charging.

Jalaradi reacted fast; creating an elemental made out of lightning, he sent it blazing at them and turned on his heels to run. His mind raced as he tried to figure a way out of the mist, he needed to get to somewhere high up, where he could draw on his mana supply properly and burn these things to cinders, but where was the high ground? Clearly not the way he had come, and had these creatures stopped him in that point? Almost like they had been guarding… something, could it be the way out of this dead filled moor?

Using a useful little spell he doubled his running speed and turned to face his enemy. He created an arc runner, another elemental, also made of lightning, with the sole advantage of having the form of a bull. It sped at the centre of the group, with the planeswalker right on its heels. Up close Jalaradi realised that he was dealing with ghouls again, clearly this moor was infested with the things, maybe even the whole plane was.

The arc runner created a gap between the ghouls, incinerating any that stood in its path. A gap that the planeswalker did not hesitate to speed through, dodging pitchforks and spears alike and soon he was through. The arc runner dissimilated in a flurry of sparks and Jalaradi rushed through them, getting slightly singed in his haste.

Soon he was going uphill and the fog was thinning, and with it his mana was returning. Then, suddenly, he was out, out of the fogand halfway up a hill. The planeswalker turned, lightning jumping fom his finger tips and some holes in his shoulder plate. The ghouls poured out of the mist, undead cries filling the air. Jalaradi didn't attack; he stayed there as they surrounded him.

"Let's begin." Muttered the planeswalker, crouching. As one the undead leapt at him, burying him beneath a sea of undead.

For a moment all was still, then a red light began to glow, and suddenly red lighting was jumping from one corpse to the other in a chain reaction, viciously burning them up and sending them flying away until they were all ash and charred bones. From this pile of carnage a black, ash covered hand appeared, then another, and then the unrecognisable face of Jalaradi, with his monocle of sorts all askew.

"Well that was fun." He said as he climbed out of the soot and began to make his way up the slope. "We ought to do it again sometime."

Unbeknownst to him, one zombie remained, a hunchbacked zombie that crawled on all fours, which had not joined its counterparts in the assault. The zombie crawled away, back down into the mist, to report to its master of the interesting thing that it had discovered, the thing that could very well win its masters war, and change the fate of Inninstrad, forever.

_Okay, this is the prologue, I don't have a lot of free time, or dedication, so I can't promise that I will keep writing, you have been warned!_

_CARDS USED: Lightning Bolt, Lightning Elemental, Burst of Speed, Arc Runner and Chain Reaction._


End file.
